How do you become a neurologist?

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Becoming a neurologist requires a high school diploma, studying at a four-year university, an additional four years of study at a medical college and three years of residency training in the neurological field, according to Andrea Santiago for About.com. A person can have a medical or doctoral degree to become qualified.

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A bachelor's degree does not need to be related to the medical field, but recruiters generally prefer for the major to pertain to the medical field in some capacity, notes Jeffrey Joyner for the Houston Chronicle. For instance, degrees in biology, chemistry or physics are suitable studies to pursue. There are also universities that offer pre-med programs. Regardless of study, students should achieve good grades to gain acceptance at a medical institution.

Admission into a medical school is a competitive process, and recruiters look for applicants who have extracurricular activities, reports Joyner. The first two years of medical study cover such areas as physiology, anatomy and psychology. The other two years entail dealing with patients under the supervision of a medical doctor. Before residency, students must compete an internship for one year. The internships are related to neurology, but other areas might be covered, such as oncology or obstetrics. A student's tenure at residency calls for shadowing other doctors and learning different case studies. Fellowships last for one or two years, but this is not a requirement. Fellowships are reserved for additional studies in a subfield.